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Vyas Group: Normal and Malignant Haematopoiesis Lab

We aim to understand the fundamental biological processes underlying normal and malignant haematopoiesis and translate this to improve patient outcomes through new rational therapies.

Our laboratory is interested in understanding the process of normal blood development and how this is perturbed in blood cancers such as Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) and myeloma.

Despite scientific advances, clinical outcomes for patients with these blood cancers remain poor and the majority of patients relapse after treatment. To improve outcomes, a better understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the disease are needed. Recently there has been significant progress in understanding the genetic basis of myeloid malignancies and myeloma, but the mechanisms of oncogenesis remain unclear. A critical question is how genetic and epigenetic regulation is disrupted in leukaemia stem cells (in AML) and therapy resistant myeloma cells in myeloma, which are thought to drive disease relapse. A strong understanding of normal human haematopoiesis forms a foundation for studying how cell fate decisions are perturbed in these blood cancers.

To study normal and malignant haematopoiesis, we use single cell approaches and combine state-of-the-art transcriptional, epigenetic and functional assays in appropriate models. Examples of our work include:

A valuable resource directing our work, and that of others, is the Haematopoietic Cell Biobank, one of the largest banks of haematological samples in the United Kingdom (around 14,000 samples), which is coordinated and managed by our laboratory. A fundamental strength of our group is the ability to integrate this clinical resource with state-of-the-art flow cytometry to purify rare haematopoietic cell populations for functional and molecular analyses. The WIMM provides a world class environment for these analyses with Single Cell, Genomic Engineering and Virus Production Facilities, as well as sequencing facilities here and at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. Group members also have access to computational resources and training at the WIMM and University wide.

The laboratory has a mix of graduate (DPhil) students and postdoctoral scientists from clinical and scientific backgrounds, as well as experienced research assistants. We emphasise a rigorous approach to experimental design and data analysis. In this stimulating environment, we aim to train the next generation of basic and clinical researchers whilst making a valuable contribution to this exciting and clinically important area of research.